Time Management Activities

Hello my name is Dwight Norris of fishingatwork.com today we're going to talk about time management activities. Most people think about this concept in the wrong way. You cannot manage time. Time is something that only exists in our heads. What we really are doing is Self Management.

My Time Management Activity Story

Now I want to start off with my story of my time management activities that I did to solve my time problem. In the beginning, I didn't realize I had a time problem even though I've said it over and over again. particularly with what we talked about on this website...fishing. now you probably see me fishing at work, and your like, Okay, I get it sort of, but let me start from the beginning.

I used to be a very avid angler. Everyday I'd be out on the water when I was younger. I would fish, fish, fish, striped bass, largemouth bass, all the pan fish we can think about, catfish, etc. etc, etc. Anything I can get my hands on and I'd be out there buying new lures. buying all the rods. trying out every new thing. every new gimmick with a professional. Plus anything I thought was pretty cool.

But things all changed after I went into the working world. like yourself, you probably came across the same problem that I did. When you go to work, you actually have to do work for the period of time that they pay you to do it, eight hours. So you maybe you have a short amount of time that you can get to work. Or maybe it's a long time. Hopefully your commute isn't as long as mine used to be when I first started out.

I used to have an hour to sometimes an hour and a half commute to work and then when I got there I had to work my butt off. then when I left I had no energy. if I had energy I would go cycling with the team and then I will be completely out of energy and fishing was thrown to the wayside. as I got older, it's just got worse and worse and worse!

The weekend was the only time I had any, like time to do anything. when I started a family, it got even worse again. you have obligations. you have to bring home the bacon. you have to pay the bills. you have chores to do. You gotta rake those leaves, cut that grass, get snow blower when it's snowing outside, shovel, clean the gutters. The list goes on on... you got to take out the trash.

after a full day of work and a full day of community, the last thing you're probably thinking about is trying to get a little fishing in. maybe in the evenings. Maybe in the mornings. If you're a really avid angler this should hurt you down to your soul. So you should take this really to heart that you've lost your fishing ways and you don't know how to get it back.

Maybe you were like myself, you start out the window and maybe there was some water nearby and you stare at it. I wish I could go over there. The water is blue. people look happier when their jogging using their selfie sticks and taking pictures of themselves as tourists having a great time. What were their time management activities? I'm in here doing my job making that money. I'm not fulfilled.

I can't get out there. I want to be fishing. Oh, well. you retire and you have time. Well, when I retire, I'll be old and useless. I will be to tired to go fishing. I won't have that same lust and zeal as I did when I was younger. I won't be able to do as much. I can put out a boat by myself if I need to, when I'm old and I will ask for help.  your body just doesn't work the way it used too.

So why would you wait till your body can't function to do the things you want to do when you're young? you kind of need to be young to do some of the things you want to do. You obviously can't wait till later in life. So this conundrum comes about. I thought to myself, hey, when do I have time to go fishing? That's not the weekend. the weekend sometimes taken from me before I even know it. these sneaky things will pop up on the weekend things you gotta do. I install a banister, myself DIY anyone. 

So we're going to talk about a few things in this video that will help you work on your time management activities so you can have time to go out and fish at work like I did, the complete story you can find at the YouTube channel, fishingatwork. you can go to the website fishingatwork.com and get a 10 step process to go fishing at work. I go into depth about the topic there.

10 Step Process To Go Fishing At Work

So the first thing we're going to talk about is the time management activities document that I made that got this whole thing started. It got me on the process to learn how to manage my time and use it effectively. then I'll talk about test time blocks. you want to know when those time periods are and when you can use them effectively. Sometimes there can be used for certain people. some people have families. some people have children. some people are just gonna are in college and have too many obligations.

they still had the work in a way fish eight hours a day instead of two or three. we all have our different lifestyles and places in our life that we were at. So I like to carry everybody. Also you want to talk about alerting your family and friends about what you're doing. you don't want them to think you're crazy. hey, I mean, you're not going to go eat lunch with us, dude? we're going to go to this cool new place or we are going to go to the bar or something else that isn't quite as appealing as going fishing. maybe you do it anyway.

like your friends, you want to hang out with them. you don't have to do the same thing every day. Also you would have a consistent change and what that entails. then the fact that time management activities really isn't just for fishing. it's for everything. you can use this technique, this activity to really get some time management importance into your life or other aspects that maybe you want to follow. So let's talk about time.

You'll actually find this in a video review where I have a little screen on my head. then I have the document open and I show in live action everything I do. it's on YouTube but it's not actually for everybody. It's actually on a 10 step process to go fish at work PDF as a link. only people who get the PDF will be able to see the link and then see the video. I will be adding on the different steps in videos about the best I can. Because right now it's all in text and I want to be speaking to you directly so that you'll get it and understand it.

When we talk like this, It makes a relationship. you'll get to know me, maybe like me and trust me about how I do things. more importantly, you'll go out there and try it. Because what I say really can't sway everybody. I implore you to take anything I give away on my website or on the videos and just go out and try it. Get all your stuff together. You just have be organized. you have to follow every step of the process. Just your stuff and go out there.

Time Management Document

So the time management acivities document actually is  an Excel document. the most important thing I do is go through at least two of my weekdays and one of my weekend. this figures out what exactly am I doing with my time on a weekly basis. So on Monday, I start off in the morning, I wake up. you have cereal and stuff and then you have to work. you do your commute. You get working. You mess around for a while. I'm doing stuff on your email or Facebook? Oh, wait, oh, I get to work.

So you do your work and then boom, lunchtime comes around. What are you doing during lunch time? Are you outside trying to get a bite to eat or the hunt for food to have other people out there. You're waiting in line wasting your time or in your office. maybe they serve lunch. maybe bring your lunch and you're eating at your desk and just spending  your time as you please. if you have a half an hour or an hour you're watching looking at Facebook or scrolling through Google and some search. 

You're looking through Craigslist for a new boat or some free fishing gear or something like that. I do that from time to time. Yeah, well, I feel like it. you could try to go to the local fishing hole and do some fishing. Has that ever come across your mind? Yes, maybe it has actually came across many years ago. But I said what? No, I gotta eat, I gotta I gotta do this. I gotta do that. when I did this checklist, I realized after going through all the days and filling it out all the stuff hour by hour for each day. 

From wake to sleep. I found several areas where I was wasting my time and I could be using that time for something else. It could be fishing, it could be anything. It's your time. Spend it how you want. Just because you can do fishing at a certain time doesn't mean you need to do fishing every day. if you're like me, you do want to fish every day.Yes, you just have to know it's a possibility. So I do have videos on YouTube called Charles River fishing where I do this and I record it.

I think that's all I have to say about the time management activities document with that man. It's a simple thing but it makes all the difference. Everything starts from there.

Time Test Blocks

So the next section is about the test time blocks. it's basically what I just said. you need to test your time that you actually find the fish. it's in the morning and you have a short commute. Maybe you take a half an hour. maybe you take 45 minutes to use that time to try to do some fishing on the go.

I actually bike to work most of the time when the weather permits. I decided that I'll do some commute fishing. I'll take my fishing with me. I'll have my bait or my lures and I'm going to hit the shoreline. I am going to go up the river and hit the shoreline and fish some structure as some key places. I'll try some new places out like five minutes here, five minutes there, five minutes there. I can hit it fast. I can work a lot of water. I can do the bridge abutments and everything.

Places like that I couldn't get to when I use my other time, which is fishing at work, which is during the lunch time period when I'm there. I'm only able to go where I can go by bus or train or walk too. if I use a longer transportation system then I lose my time fishing. so walking is the best so going to the same place which is the Charles River Esplanade a lot.

with fishing before and after work I can hit up all areas of the river on both sides when I want to because I have a superior transportation device that can go in and out pretty much anywhere in the city. it's walking around if it has a flat surface I can get to it. 

Talk To Your Family About Your Goals

The next thing going to talk about is telling your family and friends about what you're doing. they're concerned about your well being and what you doing with your time possibly when you should be doing something else. so if you plan to do some fishing in the morning and you want to leave a little early maybe to get a half an hour, but an hour and a half. yes lots of fishing.

Remember to tell you wife or maybe even a friend you're living with. hey dude you disappeared this morning. where'd you go? I was concerned. your wife will say, "hey you can’t leave me here with these kids. I have to feed them the morning and put the clothes on and get their lunches ready. you're supposed to drive them to school today but and you disappeared to go fishing. Why didn’t you say something to me?"

Don't get in that situation. Always plan and tell people what you're doing before it happens. Communication is very important in any relationship you have. when you take the time to do that you'll have a better relationship. You will have better communication. with better communication you get to fish longer or do anything else without all the the hiding. trying to sneak around to get all that sucks tell the truth.

Tell them what you're doing. Tell them why you're doing it. because you love fishing and you want to try this out honestly. you'll be surprised about the feedback you'll get from people. So remember to do that. One thing you want to do is actually make consistent change. I told you to try this out and figure out if it's going to work for you where you are. Maybe you weren't near a pond or lake or stream or river or even an ocean and you still want to fish that's a tough spot to be in. 

I can tell you that you need to move or you get a new job somewhere that's near water source where you can get some fish. that will be optimal, but not everybody can do that. So you will make consistent change. If you can do this, make sure you try it out consistently. Not everyday is the same. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday Sunday are all different days and different things happen those days.

Your meetings are different. people come to work are different. There's different levels of traffic and people outside on the highways and byways and in your local areas using all the food sources and the water sources as well. maybe the traffic is horrible. You brung all your fishing stuff Wednesday, but left something at them house.

now you've wasted another 20 minutes and you didn't even realize it you like, "Crap I should have came here Thursday. Like I planned and I went Wednesday I wasted my day that I was to go fishing. I got stuck in this traffic jam."

Don't make that problem again. That decision again. do it on Thursday next time. Now you learn something. there's another week, there's another day, which means there's another day to go fishing. Keep at it and you will figure something out for your situation. You just have to keep trying. I tried for a month. a month and a half to queue down all the days and the times that I could do things according to my work schedule and what my family does and everything else I do during the day in the week including making videos.

lastly, once you've figured out how to really take a strong arm on your time management activities, maybe you want to think about what other things you can use that time for. Maybe you don't want to fish seven days week, but if you do awesome. keep at it, but if you want to do something else please figure out how this can help you. Maybe we'll do some more books. Maybe you want to get some more knowledge or you're subscribing to the in fisherman or the bassmaster book. Maybe you want to upgrade your skills.

So you can get a better job or get a promotion. you're learning some management skills or some programming skills or something else. Take a class online for anything. when you open up your time you realize that you have earned back the greatest asset that you have. time is the greatest asset that you have. It's the one thing you can't buy. So if you learn how to get more of it, especially when you're younger than you can do some amazing things brother. that's pretty much what I want to say about time management activities. 

There are more time management activities tips out there like LifeHackers blog post on 21 ways to add more hours to your day. this is really knowledge I'm trying to give to everybody other than what's the best Bass lure or what's the best time to catch fish or where should you fish when the weather is a certain way. that's great information after all. 

Sometimes it's as simple as getting out there more often. obviously if you fish more you're going to catch more fish. you fish less you're going to catch less fish. so I want to help you have more time to fish so you can have the opportunity to catch more fish.

You can go in the morning. you can go in the middle of the day. you can go on the weekdays. you can go on the weekend. that's all week! I mean there is no other time. all your time is spent with sleeping and going to work if you have a family, family obligations. Other than that, you're on a toilet. One last time let me say it. you probably should be fishing so I deplore you please go do that.